"Pulling through" can also be slightly risky. I've almost had accidents because I was pulling through and someone pulled in to the same spot! No collisions but it would have been my fault if it happened.

I saw this thread over the weekend and wanted to respond as this is something I have a real thing about - but I was only online on my phone over the weekend so only getting back to this now!

I have always felt that backing into a space is more difficult, as one has a narrower area to fit into, whereas backing out, in theory, you have a much wider area to reverse into. That's not of course to say you should not observe what's around, or that you have carte blanche to take up all the available space, but the bottom line is I find it a lot easier and quicker to back OUT than I do to back IN. It's the way my head works, but I would never condone backing out without making full observations.

This was then discussed on Top Gear, and I was alarmed to discover they felt the opposite. While there's a lot in that show people might not agree with of course, they are all 'professional' drivers, so I attached some credibility to what they said on this issue, and their take on it WAS down to the issue of it being more likely that observation is harder if reversing out due to the range of possible directions of traffic and people approaching which could be out of your line of sight, whereas reversing in, really the only concern (barring freak accidents) is avoiding the other cars.

However, I do still see a lot of people taking a LONG time to reverse in, and it does irritate me, I admit. I drive in, and when I reverse out, I do so smoothly and quickly (and with suitable observations to be safe).

Oddly enough, while pulling through is not to my knowledge illegal here in Ireland (where I live) or the UK (where I learned to drive), it has always felt a little bit rude to me. I'm just not sure why!!

"Pulling through" can also be slightly risky. I've almost had accidents because I was pulling through and someone pulled in to the same spot! No collisions but it would have been my fault if it happened.

I am very careful for that reason. I tend to park in the back 40, anyway (more exercise), and most drivers hunt for close spaces.

I saw this thread over the weekend and wanted to respond as this is something I have a real thing about - but I was only online on my phone over the weekend so only getting back to this now!

I have always felt that backing into a space is more difficult, as one has a narrower area to fit into, whereas backing out, in theory, you have a much wider area to reverse into. That's not of course to say you should not observe what's around, or that you have carte blanche to take up all the available space, but the bottom line is I find it a lot easier and quicker to back OUT than I do to back IN. It's the way my head works, but I would never condone backing out without making full observations.

This was then discussed on Top Gear, and I was alarmed to discover they felt the opposite. While there's a lot in that show people might not agree with of course, they are all 'professional' drivers, so I attached some credibility to what they said on this issue, and their take on it WAS down to the issue of it being more likely that observation is harder if reversing out due to the range of possible directions of traffic and people approaching which could be out of your line of sight, whereas reversing in, really the only concern (barring freak accidents) is avoiding the other cars.

However, I do still see a lot of people taking a LONG time to reverse in, and it does irritate me, I admit. I drive in, and when I reverse out, I do so smoothly and quickly (and with suitable observations to be safe).

Oddly enough, while pulling through is not to my knowledge illegal here in Ireland (where I live) or the UK (where I learned to drive), it has always felt a little bit rude to me. I'm just not sure why!!

You know, I agree with you that it is easier, in terms of driving skills, to back out. When you are backing in, there are usually cars on either side of your car, and one behind it. You need to be very careful not to hit any of those cars, and you need to precisely place your car so that there is room for the doors to open without hitting the other cars. As a result, I'd expect backing in to take a few seconds longer than pulling in, especially when you add in the couple of seconds that it takes to pull past the space to prepare to back in.

But I completely agree with the Top Gear guys about what you have to observe when backing out--you have the entire aisle on both sides, people moving about, cars moving, all through the limited view that the back and side windows of your vehicle give you. It's a lot more than three stationary cars. And if you have a small car and there are much larger vehicles on either side of you, backing out is scary until you have moved out enough to see what's coming--and by that time, you have backed out enough to be hit by a car you didn't see.

That's why I consider backing in to be safer. Sure, there's a chance a small child might be running between the parked cars, but it is tiny. It is much more likely that a small child will be running down the aisle, followed by a frantic parent.

I don't think backing is rude, but I think slow parking is rude if the driver takes time in a sport where no one can get around you, and if the parker puts other drivers in a dangerous situation by causing a potential back up.

Fozie is driving, with Kermit, in a De Soto, gets told to turn left at the the fork in the road - and shows a giant fork, stuck in the road. At one point, Fozie's driving is particularly bad and Kermit asks him, 'Where did you learn to drive?'

Fozie replies, 'I took a correspondance course.'

So that's what I ask all the bad drivers out there when I'm ranting and raving inside the safe, relatively soundproof confines of my own vehicle.

I used to work for a telephone-directory company and of course driving-schools were one of the largest category-advertisers.

One company specified the large number of translator-instructors that they employed. Great, this is a pretty cosmopolitan city - it was fine that they mentioned languages such as French/German/Italian/Spanish/Farsi/Tagalog etc.

But another language mentioned was Braille. I wasn't in the Sales or ad-proofing department but could never figure out that one...

OK, so yesterday I was in a multistorey car park, first time in a while, so I had a chance to observe the behaviour of the parkers and here, in the interests of some very non-scientific EHell research, is what I discovered.

1. Absolutely everyone I was behind while they were parking reverse parked; nobody in front of me pulled forwards into a space. But with the limited aisle space found in multistoreys it's far easier to back in than swing in forwards so that's understandable. Most of the cars that were already parked were in backwards.

2. Invariably nobody signalled their intention to park. So, they drove past the space (in order to be able to back in) then stopped. By this time I was too close behind them to give them space so I had to back up. This is the rude part, I think. If they'd signalled while near to the space, I would have realised they were going to back into it. One person started to back up before I'd reversed out of her way; she didn't even look before she started backing up. They also mostly didn't put themselves at the correct angle to reverse while passing the space and stopping; they drove past it and stopped at right angles to the space instead of turning outwards with the front end away from the space. Is this perhaps why people are unable to get the car into the space first time?

3. One lady in a big 4WD vehicle - I didn't pay any attention to what type - had trouble backing into the space because a) the vehicle was big and the space to turn in was small b) she was having trouble seeing properly over the seats while reversing because she was short, so this took extra time. She was in and out a few times.

4. One person took so long trying to do it that I ended up driving around her when she was backed far enough in (at least the third time of trying!) to leave enough space for me to do so. I was able to do that faster than she was manoeuvring the car in and out, so that gives an indication of how slow she was at it.

5. When I came back to my car after shopping, someone had a reversed into the space next to me and not been able to get it in straight, because they left it at an angle to the lines and made it awkward for me to open the door. Luckily they came back at the same time as me, so I just waited for her to leave so I could get in.

So, the most annoying things were a) people not signalling that they were going to take a space and b) not doing it properly/not having the skill to do it in a reasonable amount of time. Also, sheer obliviousness to the fact that other people were using the car park too

3. One lady in a big 4WD vehicle - I didn't pay any attention to what type - had trouble backing into the space because a) the vehicle was big and the space to turn in was small b) she was having trouble seeing properly over the seats while reversing because she was short, so this took extra time. She was in and out a few times.

And this is exactly why I never back into a space. Even with the car's seat raised up as high as it will go, I can't see anything but sky when I turn and look out through the back window.

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Common sense is not a gift, but a curse. Because thenyou have to deal with all the people who don't have it. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

4. One person took so long trying to do it that I ended up driving around her when she was backed far enough in (at least the third time of trying!) to leave enough space for me to do so. I was able to do that faster than she was manoeuvring the car in and out, so that gives an indication of how slow she was at it.

You may well have been there just as long while she tried to maneuver into the space.

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So, the most annoying things were a) people not signalling that they were going to take a space and b) not doing it properly/not having the skill to do it in a reasonable amount of time. Also, sheer obliviousness to the fact that other people were using the car park too

4. One person took so long trying to do it that I ended up driving around her when she was backed far enough in (at least the third time of trying!) to leave enough space for me to do so. I was able to do that faster than she was manoeuvring the car in and out, so that gives an indication of how slow she was at it.

You may well have been there just as long while she tried to maneuver into the space.

Exactly. That's why I drove round her; she was taking so long I didn't want to wait any more for her - I'm not seeing your point?

I never said it was. I said that backing in was annoying (and potentially rude) when people took too much time to do it because they don't know how to do it properly, which this lady obviously didn't.

Oh wait. You mean I may have been waiting just as long if she was manoeuvring into the space *forwards*? Quite possibly. Still, she backed in, and she couldn't do it properly so - is that rude and inconsiderate?